He’s a rare politician who prefers to stay close to home, but as his third term beckons, Gov. Andrew Cuomo appears to be willing to broaden his horizons a bit.

Cuomo was was elected vice-chair of the bipartisan National Governors Association over the weekend, becoming the group’s top Democrat. (The association’s chair is Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana). He is the incumbent policy chair of the Democratic Governors Association, a role in which he’ll continue to serve.

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“The NGA is a critical platform to bring together bipartisan views and forge a path forward for our country at a time of deep political divide,” Cuomo said.

He role at the NGA, which will take effect later next year, probably won’t make the cable news bookers stand up and take notice of the recluse of Eagle Street, but the position can’t help but give Cuomo a bigger national profile, at least among his colleagues in both parties.

What’s more, the NGA really does see itself as a bipartisan, pragmatic group that prides itself on getting things done rather than scoring political points.

If you’ve been paying attention at all over the last few years, that theme should sound familiar.

WHAT CITY HALL IS READING

PRIVATE BUSES CHOKE TRAFFIC: “A financially struggling bus company was kicked out of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan after failing to pay $214,000 in fees. But instead of shutting down, the scofflaw company found a new home at a fraction of the cost: on the curb outside. Passengers just need to walk down the street to catch Carl R. Bieber Inc. buses to the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. The new bus stop on Eighth Avenue, near 39th Street, was approved by city transportation officials despite the objections of residents, community leaders and others who say that it crams even more buses and people (and luggage) into one of New York’s most congested corridors — and essentially rewards Bieber with a prime spot. Bieber’s curbside spot is part of what critics say is a much larger problem: a booming fleet of private buses that roll through Manhattan and pull over on streets, making New York’s already bleak traffic picture even worse. Across New York, the number of bus companies with permits for curbside stops has more than tripled since 2013, to 151 from 46” New York Times’s Winnie Hu

JOHNSON’S HART ISLAND PUSH — POLITICO’s Dana Rubinstein: New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson plans to mount an aggressive effort to turn Hart Island — the potter’s field where prisoners bury New York’s poor in mass graves — into a more publicly accessible cemetery. And he says he'll do so even if it means overriding the will (and veto) of Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Once you visit Hart Island, it's very apparent and clear that the current state of affairs on Hart Island is..." Johnson paused to find the right word: “indefensible.” He hopes he can negotiate with de Blasio to transfer the island to an entity other than the one that runs New York City’s jails. “But if he remained opposed, I think there would be wide enough support in the Council to move forward,” Johnson said. Read more here

MCCRAY’S STAFF IN HIGH PLACES — POLITICO’s Gloria Pazmino: City taxpayers aren’t just footing the bill for first lady Chirlane McCray’s out of town travel — as she eyes a run for public office, the city is now paying someone to lobby on her behalf in the nation’s capital. The city recently hired Walter Bishop to work as McCray’s second deputy chief of staff and her federal affairs strategic advisor, POLITICO has learned. The new position, which comes with an annual salary of $150,000 is housed within Mayor Bill de Blasio’s federal affairs unit, which operates out of Washington, D.C. Bishop is the most recent addition to the first lady’s team, which now includes seven staffers for a total staff budget just shy of $1 million.

As of this month, McCray’s team includes a chief of staff, two deputy chiefs of staff, a senior communications adviser, a director of scheduling and special assistant as well as a deputy scheduler and press secretary. The latest hire has raised concerns among government watchdog groups. “It doesn’t seem appropriate for the mayor’s wife to have a federal liaison reporting to her,” said John Kaehny, executive director and founding board member of Reinvent Albany. Read more here.

ORTHODOX OFFICIALS RESIST STATE’S YESHIVA PROBE: “As part of the state’s ruling, the New York City Department of Education is giving yeshivas three years to clean up their act, demanding that the religious schools ensure a curriculum “substantially equivalent” to that of public schools. But some Orthodox officials are resistant. In a speech on Wednesday in East Williamsburg, Satmar Rebbe Aron Teitelbaum called for defiance of regulations. “If the commissioner of education wants to fix education in the state of New York, he can go to the public schools and fix the education being offered there,” said Teitelbaum in a speech translated from Yiddish. “The Jewish nation will not bow or give in to the wicked, not even the commissioner of education . . . we will go out to war against the commissioner in every way.” New York Post’s Doree Lewak

New York Times’s Eliza Shapiro: “‘This is a smear campaign against our community and what it stands for,’ said David Niederman, a rabbi and the president of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg. ‘If some people are not happy with what they are taught, it is up to them to take action.’ ...Avi Schick, a lawyer for Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools, a group formed after the 2015 investigation was opened, said, “The intrusive set of requirements imposed by the state demolishes the wall between church and state that politicians have hid behind for decades.””

WHAT ALBANY'S READING

HEASTIE MAKES THE CASE FOR A PAY RAISE — State legislators are suffering real economic consequences from having their salary stuck at $79,500 for 20 years, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie argued on Friday while speaking to a committee tasked with determining whether they should get a raise. “Under any objective measure our static compensation has failed to keep pace with economic realities,” Heastie said in a Manhattan hearing of the commission, composed of current and former state and city comptrollers...Heastie has been the most vocal proponent of a raise for lawmakers since he assumed the Assembly’s top post in 2015. The Democrats that he leads are significantly less likely than Republicans to hold jobs on the side. They also make less in state pay: Each conference gets dozens of leadership stipends to distribute to their members, and the Assembly Democrats are the only group so large that there aren’t enough to go around. And due to relative Republican strength upstate, Democrats tend to come from more expensive places to live. POLITICO’s Bill Mahoney

— The New York Times, The Daily Newsand Newsday have recently joined the chorus of editorial boards that said legislators shouldn’t get a raise if they don’t agree to issues like limiting outside income. “Unless state legislative leaders promise ethics reforms, this process is not a pay hike, it’s a heist,” the latter wrote. But Heastie is sticking to his long-standing position that it’s improper for legislators to agree to pass legislation in exchange for receiving more money.

KEN LOVETT: “Gov. Cuomo and state labor leaders are accusing Charter/Spectrum cable of “union-busting” activities and are set to unleash Monday a campaign seeking new boycotts against the company, the Daily News has learned. Negotiations between Spectrum and IBEW Local 3, which has been out on strike for more than a year, had heated up in recent weeks, a source with knowledge of the situation said. The source said that despite progress being made, Spectrum walked away from the talks on Friday, leading to charges that the company was engaging in union busting activities — something the company vehemently denies.” Daily News

POST JANUS UNION SLIDE — “New York’s statewide teachers union is collecting cash from 28,057 fewer people than it was before the Supreme Court ruling that ended compulsory union fees for public employees. New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) reported in annual U.S. Department of Labor filings that the union collected either dues or dues-like agency fees from 427,598 individuals as of August 31, down 6 percent from the 455,655 dues- or fee-payers reported by the union in August 2017. The decrease is almost certainly attributable to the June 27 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, which abolished agency fees. Filings show NYSUT lost 20,762 agency fee-payers between 2017 and 2018, though some of these individuals likely signed membership cards and became members. But Janus didn’t just stop unions from getting money from non-members: it also meant that people who had joined NYSUT simply because they would have to pay regardless were likely to reconsider, which is why the numbers of fee-payers and members must be examined together.” Empire Center’s Ken Girardin

PROSECUTORS WANT BUFFALO BILLION REFUND — “Prosecutors don't want to stop at just locking up Buffalo businessman Louis P. Ciminelli in federal prison for a number of years. They want the government to grab back the money his company made off the Buffalo Billion, too. Ciminelli will be sentenced in federal court in Manhattan on Monday for his role in a bid-rigging scheme that steered state money to his company, LPCiminelli. And if prosecutors get their way, he'll face a stiff sentence that includes returning a substantial share of the millions LPCiminelli collected to build the Buffalo Billion RiverBend project that now houses a Tesla plant. It's unclear, though, how much money Ciminelli's company would have to forfeit. In court papers filed on Friday, prosecutors said Ciminelli's gross profit off the deal was $26.25 million – but that was before operating costs.” Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski

TRUMP'S NEW YORK

NYC NOT FUNDING CENSUS OUTREACH — ”Lack of funding could imperil getting an accurate count in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods” — ”At this time a decade ago, New York City community organizations charged with collecting U.S. Census data had already been funded and were gearing up for the 2010 count. With controversy still brewing over who and how to count the nation’s population for the 2020 census, New York City has yet to distribute funding to get the upcoming job done. Mayor de Blasio said in his State of the City speech earlier this year that the city planned to allocate $4.3 million to the “Get Counted NYC” campaign, mainly to hire a census coordinator and oversee a public awareness campaign. None of that money so far has been allocated to the community organizations that usually go door-to-door gathering information on the population.” Documented New York’s Aliya Bhatia

FEW NY BUSINESSES SIGNED UP TO BYPASS TRUMP TAX RULES — “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a program enacted in April would help protect employees from new federal limits on the deductibility of state and local taxes. A state official said 220 businesses had opted into the plan as of Friday, a figure representing less than 0.1% of the state’s employers and an unknown number of employees...Leaders of business groups in New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Long Island and Westchester County said they weren’t aware of any major employers who are participating. Many held outreach sessions for their members, who considered the program but deemed it unworkable for a variety of reasons.” Wall Street Journal’s Jimmy Vielkind

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse is publishing a list Monday of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor in the diocese since 1950.

Legislation that would make private schools report sexual abuse incidents to police, as public schools are currently required to do, is among the bills awaiting gubernatorial action in the coming weeks.

Rep.-elect Anthony Brindisitold Nancy Pelosi he will not support her for Speaker and there’s nothing that can change his mind.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s charity announced a $50 million donation to help fight the nation’s opioid epidemic.

The president of SUNY Downstate Medical University, Wayne J. Riley, made at least $250K from HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital company.

SPOTTED: John Kerry at the Friday night performance of “Springsteen on Broadway.” Pic

PER MORNING MEDIA: “Reuters has laid off a number of journalists, Daniel Lippman reports. Toni Reinhold, editor-in-charge of the Americas desk; Clive McKeef, deputy editor of the Americas desk; and Daniel Bases, U.S. public finance editor, were all let go. London-based technology correspondent Eric Auchard is also leaving. Reinhold and Bases declined to comment and McKeef and Auchard didn’t respond to requests for comment. After the 30 members of the Americas desk found out about the layoffs of Reinhold and McKeef, they all wrote ‘a very forceful’ letter to Americas desk head Howard Goller protesting the dismissal and ‘decrying what to us was an incredibly foolish move,’ Dan Grebler, Reuters unit chair for the NewsGuild of New York, told Morning Media."

REAL ESTATE WITH SALLY GOLDENBERG AND JANAKI CHADHA

AMAZON FRENZY: “Long Island City has become Prime investment property, thanks to Amazon. The already-popular waterfront Queens neighborhood was named as the future home of Amazon’s Gotham headquarters last month — and buyers have been on a feeding frenzy ever since, local brokers told The Post. Demand has been so great since Amazon’s announcement Nov. 13 that one broker says he’s been working around the clock, seven days a week, leading dozens of mostly Chinese prospective investors on neighborhood tours in rented minivans.” New York Post’s Jennifer Gould Keil

THE HOME TEAMS, BY HOWARD MEGDAL

Giants 30, Bears 27: Imagine if New York had held on at Philly last week. Instead, the Giants won a home date with the Bears in overtime on an Aldrick Rosas field goal, a wild game that included a touchdown pass by Odell Beckham Jr. and a Bears touchdown pass by halfback Tarik Cohen as regulation time expired. Technically, the Giants are still in playoff contention, ever so slightly.

Dolphins 21, Bills 17: The Bills are not, but Josh Allen gave some more reason for future optimism, passing for 231 yards and running for another 135.

Titans 26, Jets 22: Nor are the Jets, who blew a 16-point lead to fall to their sixth straight loss.

The day ahead: The morass that is the Wizards visits The Garden. The Nets host the Cavaliers. The Sabres are in Nashville.

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this newsletter misidentified Montana Gov. Steve Bullock's party affiliation. He is a Democrat.

About The Author : Laura Nahmias

Laura Nahmias is a reporter for POLITICO New York, covering City Hall and Mayor Bill de Blasio. Before she began covering City Hall, she wrote about Albany politics for POLITICO New York. She has also written for City and State, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Laura earned her undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, before earning a Masters Degree in Journalism at Columbia University.

About The Author : Terry Golway

Terry Golway is a senior editor at POLITICO States responsible for New York state political coverage out of Albany. He has been a journalist for more than 40 years and is the author of more than a dozen books, including Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics. He was a member of The New York Times' editorial board and was city editor of the New York Observer. He holds a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Rutgers University.

About The Author : Daniel Lippman

Daniel Lippman is a reporter for POLITICO and a co-author of POLITICO's Playbook, the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics.

Before joining POLITICO, he was a fellow covering environmental news for E&E Publishing and a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York. He has also interned for McClatchy Newspapers and Reuters. During a stint freelancing in 2013, he traveled to the Turkish-Syrian border to cover the impact of the Syrian civil war for The Huffington Post and CNN.com.

He graduated from The Hotchkiss School in 2008 and from The George Washington University in 2012. Daniel hails from the Berkshires in western Massachusetts and enjoys playing tennis, seeing movies and trying out new restaurants in his free time.